Auditor raps waste dumping

Year Published: 1991 Resource Type: ArticleCx Number: CX4253

Abstract: Federal negligence is allowing polluters to dump waste into northern rivers in clear violation of their licenses, according to Auditor-General Kenneth Dye. He blames the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development for failing to enforce its regulations for waste discharge. In one example cited by Dye, the Justice Department wanted to lay charges against a company that had dumped excess waste for about 100 days in 1989, including arsenic for 50 days. Instead, Northern Affairs renewed the company's license. Across the country, according to Dye, only 50 per cent of Canada's mines were complying with effluent regulations in 1988, a serious decline from 1982 when 85 per cent of mines were obeying the rules.